Goals For The Weekend

Seeing as how this may be my last weekend off for a long while, I have made up a list of what I need to get done, starting today:

Thursday (today) 

• Organize Korea papers in a binder
• Email Platteville to verify that they will send me the paperwork I need
• go through all paper work and files on computer and set up a portfolio
• start up a list of stuff I will need in Korea and begin to figure out what I'm taking with, shipping there, buying there, or other.
• do dishes and clean stove
• get laundry done
• make bed and pick up room
• vacuum house

Friday

• Pull and cut the buck-thorn in the yard
• Put ashes in back gardens
• Rake off all gardens and trim up dead plants
• Take dogs for a walk at Lion's Den
• get both grammar sections completed by today

Saturday

• Start going through clothes and getting rid of the stuff I didn't wear this winter
• make sure all seeds are planted and get set up in the basement with grow light
• clean out smokehouse and reorganize
• Start on garage organization, get rid of what I know goes
• Wash carpet in living room and parents room

Sunday

• Start going through music on laptop and figuring out which CD's to put on itunes
• Clean bathrooms
• Organize more of garage

Everyday I will keep up my exercises, which I have had to modify a little because of my knee continuing to hurt.  I am also keeping up on the calorie specific diet and it seems to be working. After this weekend, I won't have much left to do but work, and work on what I can in the yard, and stress about Korea.  I went to the Library a few days ago and got all three books they had on Korea and all i know now is I really Really want to go there.  Oh, and I also know that my libraries organization system makes no sense at all and they have a terrible selection of everything but romance novels and Christian philosophy.

Chugga, Chugga, Chugga

Things are still rolling along.  I have got everything turned in I can for Korea, I'm just waiting to get stuff back.  I am burning through my TEFL online course and I'll probably finish it up in the next two weeks, as well as the grammar section and whatever else I may have to get done.  One thing has slowed me up with this, I don't really know how to teach little kids.  I have started to make all of my lessons focus on classes I may actually teach and it is forcing me to think harder about the classes I am designing, but it is also really helping me out.

As for the whole job situation, I need to go to Madison on Monday and pick up a copy of my birth certificate since the passport place took my original.  I also need to go and buy some red shirts and Khaki pants.... Lame.  I hate two pieces of clothing more that anything in the world, red shirts and Khaki pants.  But at least I will have a job.

The weather is still awful and cold and snowy, but I am almost done planting my seeds inside.  My garden is going to be even more amazing than it was last year.  I have it almost all planned and then I will get some pictures up on here of the drawn up plans. Here is a preveiw of whats to come:

This will probably be the last Korea focused post for awhile since I am not going to be doing much besides work and gardening.  But never fear!  I shall have many other things to talk about as I begin night shifts and as the weather warms!

Now We're Getting Somewhere

Today was probably one of the most productive days I've had in a long time, and it is only half over!  

I got up bright and early this moring to go and get my Passport at the post office. My passport picture is terrible, big surprise, and I will defininetly be taking one here at my house and getting the correct size made up rather than use that one with my applications.

After the Passport stuff, I stopped off and got pet food, and potting soil and the last seeds I need for my garden.  Now I just need to get them planted, today hopefully, and draw up the plans for what goes where in which garden.  Oh, and I also need the stupid weather to figure out which season it is.

When I got home I made a lot of phone calls to different people trying to get stuff figured out.  I now have all the graduation stuff sorted away, finally, and I need to wait till I get my stuff in the mail in May.  I also found out that I don't have to change up my appointment for the doctor in April which is good, I didn't want to wait another two months to get this physical over with.  And I got everything except my fingerprints set for the Criminal Background Check request.

I headed out to the final interveiw at *sigh* Target.  As long as I pass the drug test tomorrow I should be starting up on wednesday working overnights.  After the interview, I attempted to do the drug test but the facility was packed so I am going first thing tomorrow.  Then I got my fingerprints, which was awful, they put me in a booking room.  Tomorrow I will mail in the stuff to the FBI and then I am all set until I hear back from James, who I will be emailing to update on all of this as soon as I am done here.

Tonight the rest of my plans include, completeing another lesson for my online course, cooking a delicious Chinese Speghetti and Meatball dinner, and doing some reading just for fun, maybe even a movie, and I will be doing my workout video and walking speed walking two miles.  My knee is still really sore from when I hurt it the other day, so I am hopng cuttung back on the workout video time and starting up walking again will help out.  The past three days I have stuck with a 1200 calorie diet and I'm starting to adjust to the food amounts.  I have also increased my coffee intake by about three times as much, but I refuse to change that.

Life is looking much better that it has in a long, long time.

These guys greeted me outside the Feed Mill. Just another wonderful part to the day!

Is That Sunshine Peeking Through?

As I sit in my parents living room, listening to our leaking roof drip into the bucket next to me, listening to the bluegrass country band, Cadillac Sky, I find myself imagining that I can see a little metaphorical sunshine off in the distance.

Even though I had all the lovely issues with college yesterday and I felt like my life was crashing down, when the sun came up this morning, I rolled out of bed, fed my pets and got in the shower to get ready for my job interview.  I just keep going, fighting my way through.  I have been thinking about the way I've lived my life up till now and I need to make some changes, changes I have been working to make for a while.  It is time to let go of the last of the things holding me back.

One of the things keeping me back is my ability to be okay with less then I really want.  I am a great "settler."  I always have been.  I settle for not quite the job, not quite the guy, and not quite the life I really want.  And I am done with it.  I deserve the life, job, guy, the everything I want out of life.  I have to start fighting back against a world that seems stacked against me.  Life is stacked against everyone, I know, but screw everyone else.  It is time for it to be about me.

So, starting today, I am going after the life I know I can have with every bit of fight I have in me.  I am done listening to the people telling me to be sure not to get my hopes up, or to make sure it's really a good idea to want what i do, or telling me to be realistic.  I am not stupid.  I now that I will be disappointed sometimes but not putting my whole heart into it will only do two things: stop me from getting what I want, and when I don't get it, I won't feel any less awful.

To those of you that love me and to those of you that may be telling me these things out of the goodness of your hearts.... Shut up!  Cheer me on and be there to help me get back on when I get thrown off.  Other than that, let me live my own damn life.  I love you all, but it's time to let me go off into the big blue world.

I think I may be done with this little rant.  I am going to go out and get done what I need to do today, and I am not letting fear and second guessing get in my way.  I am going to get my own little bit of sunshine in this deary, cloudy world.

GAH!!

I Hate The University of Platteville Wisconsin's Staff.

I am not talking about the professor's or even most of the support staff.  I am talking about the people who work in the offices that are supposed to be keeping track of my records.  They must really hire from the bottom of the barrel in those places.


Today I emailed the college to find out what date I would be receiving my diploma when I graduate in the spring.  I received an email back stating that I was not enrolled and asking how I intended to fulfill my ethnic and gender credits that I needed to graduate.  The email I got from them:

Hi Carly
Diplomas will be ordered after all degrees are posted.  Our office will receive them sometime in August 2011.
I see you not currently enrolled at UW-Platteville, will you be transferring credits back in for your degree?

I sent back an email telling them that I had already transferred those credits from Milwaukee and had received confirmation from their office that the transfer was successful.  I got back the following email:

 Hi Carly,

We have received your intent to graduate for May 2011.  It appears you were last enrolled here in Spring 2010.  When you left campus, you still needed an ethnic and gender course for your general education requirements and English 3950 Writing for Performance for the Creative Writing minor.  You are not required to complete the minor, but how do you plan to complete the ethnic and gender class?

Thanks

Again I replied to them stating that I had already requested that the ethnic and gender courses I took at UW-Milwaukee be counted for my ethnic and gender credits that were still missing and I had the letters from them stating the approval of those credits transfers and asked what else they needed me to send to them.  At this point they told me they had never gotten my transcripts from those courses even though I had sent them to then right after completing the course:

We haven't received a transcript with these courses on them yet.  Are you currently taking them or are you done?  Once you complete them, make sure to have an official transcript sent directly to our office.

I then told them that I was sending another transcript overnight to them from Milwaukee.  Now they want to know when I first sent to transcripts to them... like it matters.  I have requested the transcripts be overnight-ed to both them and to me so when I drive the three hours there on Wednesday, there is absolutely no way they can claim they have not received them.


And then to round out the day, I decided to order all the transcripts I needed for Korea from Milwaukee and to check how much it will cost at Platteville.  Milwaukee allows me to order the transcripts online and have them the next day.  This is what platteville has to say about transcripts:

To obtain your official University of Wisconsin Platteville transcript, you must submit a signed, written request to:

Registrar's Office
UW-Platteville
101 Brigham Hall
1 University Plaza
Platteville, WI 53818-3099

Online and phone requests are not excepted. Requests should be placed well in advance of date needed to insure adequate time for processing.

This is why.... I Hate The University of Platteville Wisconsin.

So Much To Think About

Oh my gosh!  My brain is going to explode!  I have way to many things that my brain is thinking about (or trying to) all at once and more keep showing up.  Here is a list of just a few that are at the top of the massive list at the moment...

First:

I think I messed up my knee. I was doing my workout today and bent to do a squat and my knee started shooting with pain and gave out. After an hour of attempting to bend it and stretch it, I decided to forget the work out today and just take a shower. Hopefully it will feel better tomorrow.

Second:

While I was drying my hair after my shower, I had a realization that I needed to find an adapter for my hair dryer when I go to Korea. This led to me sitting and thinking of all the things I am going to need to use with an adapter over there. And I have no clue where to get one or what exactly I need.

Third:

As I did the dishes today after making lunch, I suddenly realized that there is no way I am going to be able to bring my own dishes to Korea unless I ship them there ahead of time. This will work out as long as I know the address of the place I am living before I get there. It may work out better to just buy new when I get there however because who knows how much space I will have or what I'll even need.

Fourth:

I do not own a suitcase. I thought I did, but when I went to dig it out of my closet, it seems to have shrunk a great deal. I have never traveled anyway that I couldn't just fit everything into a big duffel bag. This is a problem.

Fifth:

I have no clue how I am going to get all the stuff over there that I need. I mean, how do I pack, winter boots, winter coat, pants, skirts, high heels, flip flops, tennis shoes, shorts, dresses, sweatshirts, t-shirts, blouses, sweaters, and everything else I need for a year into only fifty pounds?

These are just a few of the things stirring around my brain today while I clean and organize and sand away.  And now I get to add to these thoughts by worrying about the phone call tomorrow with the person from Gone2Korea, and the interview on Tuesday, and getting all this stuff done that needs to get done while I work overnights.

I think that my plan for the rest of the night is going to be, turn off all of the lights and electronics and everything, have a cup of hot herbal tea, and stare out the window at the first big thunderstorm of the spring.  I need to take a deep breathe, and relax.  Then tomorrow I will start making lists, lists, and more lists.  I have five months to figure this all out.  No need to panic yet.

Today Is Okay

When I got up this morning and walked into the room where my laptop was, I found that my cat had been doing some late night internet surfing and had passed out in front of the computer.

I officially have an interview at target on Tuesday. I will have to keep repeating to myself, "this is only till Korea, this is only till Korea..." If I can pull off doing this job and Summerfest and house/pet sitting, and spend as little money as possible. I should be pretty well off when I leave for South Korea.

Moving to South Korea has also changed up my finance plans a little bit. For one, I am going to remiss my student loans until I get back so that I can pay them all off real quick with out a ton of interest. I also am determined to pay off my credit card and find out if Capital One is excepted in South Korea. If not, I will open a different Credit Card and cancel or put a hold on my Capital One card.

I am hoping to have at least $3,000 saved when I move to Korea. If I can work to fit my food and utilities into that three thousand, I should be able to return to the US with about $20,000 saved up.

I am eating my breakfast right now, and getting ready to do my 20 minute work out. Then I'm heading upstairs to sand the hallway and get it ready to varnish.  After I do that till my arm falls off, I'm going to do dishes and clean up downstairs so my mom doesn't freak when she gets home after a weekend away.  Then it's on to making dinner, another workout, and finishing the floor.

I want to work outside but I have to except that it is still to early to do that.  I tried to pull buck-thorn yesterday, but ran into two problems. The first was that I wasn't always certain that I was pulling up buck-thorn and not other things I wanted to save. The second was, the ground is still pretty frozen.

Wow, I Feel Like A Jerk

Welp, I broke up with Don.  And I feel terrible about it.  I wish that he had been some asshole, meany, person like Michael was so I would feel good about doing it but I do not.  He is a genuinely nice guy, and a great person but the timing was completely wrong.

I except partial responsibility for that although when I started the relationship I wasn't planning to go to Korea anymore.  I should have kept in mind my amazing ability to become single minded and go for something while thinking of no one else's feelings but my own.

Still, wishing to feel better about this is a silly thing to do and in the end, breaking up now is better then staying together and getting closer over the next six months only to leave then.  This is kinder for everyone involved in the end, even if it still sucks now.

St. Paddy's was fun, I guess.  I wish I cold have stayed out a little later and at the same time I am glad I didn't.  I don;t like to get super drunk at the bars anymore, especially in Milwaukee when there are about three hundred people in one bar.  It was great to see Amanda and be able to get out of the house for a bit, but being out just made me wore determined than ever to continue working out and getting healthy.

So far I have been keeping up with my exercises for the last week.  I did skip yesterday, so that will be my second skip day this week.  I am really trying to listen to my body and if I am not to sore and worn out after my first workout of the day, I have been going back to do a second before I go to sleep at night.  I am finding that it is kinda helping me sleep a little better although my back still hurts like crazy.

Got a call from target today, so I am calling them back as soon as I get off of here,  The work is for third shift which kinda sucks, even if I do get an extra dollar an hour.  Also, after the first few months I would be switched to working 4 am-noon or something like that so I don't know.  It's only for the summer so I may as well go for it and get it over with.  At nine bucks an hour 40 hours a week I would be able to make about $1,400 a month before taxes.  If they take out the $400 each month then by the time I go to Korea I will be able to make a total of about $5,000 before I go to Korea.

I better get off of here and call them!

Getting On It

Korea Here I Come!
 
Over the last few days I have working hard to get everything I need organized to turn in to the person working on my application for Korea.  I have also been trying to prep myself in general to travel halfway around the world and live for a year.  So far, this is my To-Do List:

1. Take a decent and professional-looking picture of myself to give to my Canadian contact to put in my file.
2. Have 30 minute phone conversation with my Canadian contact to get any questions I have answered and to answer their questions and find out next step.
3. Figure out how to obtain my FBI Criminal Background Check.
4. Obtain Passport.
5. Fill out the Korean Immigtration Health Survey.
6. Contact the Korean Consulate in Chicago to get my forms turned in.
7. Get 5 copies of my transcripts and have them noterized.
8. Purchase an Adaptor for my laptop.
9. Get six copies of my Passport photo.
10. Get three recommendation letters from my professors.
11. Photocopy EVERYTHING.
12. Finish TEFL Class
13. Finish Grammer certificate.
14. Teach self Korean.

Reading over this list kinda makes me feel like a spy.

Anyway, so far I have done nothing on this list.  I am working on the TEFL class and am halfway done.  I am going to sit down and do the whole class for the grammer cerifitcate in one to two days and get it over with.  I also am going to save all of it to use as a reference for myself when teaching.  They explain things in a very simplistic way that will be great for teaching non-English speakers.

As for teaching myself Korean, I borrowed Rosetta Stone Korean from a friend and I have been working on it the past few days.  The biggest difficulty I am having is that nothing is the same as English. The letters aren't even the same.  While this may seem like a "no shit" moment, it made me think of something I hadn't about teaching them my language.  They will have to learn a whole new alphabet with no similarities to their own.

I am taking my photos today to send in for my file and I am going to get my passport today or tomorrow.  I have an appointment to talk to the person handling my application on monday to get some of my questins answered.  Otherwise, everything will hopefully fall into it's own time.  Anyone want to take a trip to Chicago with me if I have to visit the Korean Consulate?

In Other Parts of My Life....

I have been working out like a fiend and I will be posting two food entries on my food Blog today about the great, healthy meals I made the last few days. Every couple days I have to take a break and eat up all the leftovers I have.

My goal is to work out two times a day, five days a week and drop about twenty pounds by my birthday, May 16th.  If I succed in this, I am giving myself two of the items on my wish list from Mod Cloth.  After my birthday, I want to continue to get healthy over summer so that by the time I go to South Korea, I am within twenty to thirty pounds of my goal.  I bet I will be able to loose the rest while I'm over there.

The weather is finally warming up and I am more and more excited to get out in the garden to get started on planting and weeding and clearing.  I really hope that the next few days of warm will get rid of the snow and let me start clearing out the back woods.

I am halfway done with my spring cleaning housework and I have my full checklist of things that need to get done this spring drawn up.  I am not putting that up here because it's over four pages long, but I'll let you know when I finish something.

I have applied at target for third shift and I am applying at walmart today.  These are just to get me through the summer and to help me pay my expenses and have some spending cash over in South Korea.

I am also starting a "picture and song of the day page" on here, made up of pictures I enjoy at the moment, followed by a song that I am particularly in love with that day. 

Back To My Future

Well, Epic fell through.  Not a surprise.

I have offically turned in my application to teach in South Korea, and I am getting a simple, lame job to pay my expenses over the summer and I'm heading out (fungers crossed) for the fall semester.  Later, after I fugure it all out, I'm going to post exactly what I need to do and my expenses but for now, I have no real clue.

I do know I need a passport, and an adaptor for my laptop so I can give updates to my lovely fans.  I also know that I get paid airfare, a rent-free and fully furnished studio appartment within walking distance of my job, and a cool 2.8 million won a month (conversion).

Not too shabby.

Other than that, I have started on my spring cleaning, soon I will move on to stripping and finishing the upstairs hallway, and then I will get my garden going.  I have all the seeds ready, and a grow light.  I just need to get some paper cups to plant them in and we will be good to go.

Yay, Its March!

Well, after the first excitment of the weather warming and stuff melting being killed by the additional 16 inches of snow that was recently dumped on us, I feel that March has promise.  First off, I have decided on a backup plan if I can't find a real job soon.  I think that Culinary School could be a great fit for me and it has more job oppotunities then my current degrees.  Also, Kim and I have located two very good opptions for living aragments come june.

That being said, I woke this morning to an email, requesting I turn in an application at Epic Industries, which is located in madison.  The jobs they have available sound amzing and they actually follow what I went to school for as well as actually requiring a college degree, two big pluses in my recent job serch experiance.  However, they would require my relocation to madison if I get the job, so maybe Dana and I can move in together....

The description of this pace did make me giggle a bit and I have included their little explanationa dn a photo or two... Enjoy:

We love our 800-acre campus — it's a blend of pastoral and urban, of Midwestern charm and a quirky sensibility that's uniquely Epic. Located on picturesque farmland 20 minutes from Madison, it's somewhat difficult to describe.

Epic uses sustainable materials, obtaining them from local sources whenever possible. We recycle approximately 65% of our construction waste, and the geothermal system we use to heat and cool our buildings is one of the largest in the country.

And we still have a working farm. With cows.

Since we need to look outside ourselves and to the future, we've named our buildings with astronomy in mind. Who wants a cubicle in "Building A" when you can have an office in Andromeda?

And with this many people and buildings, it's easier to find your way with unique themes. If you're in the jungle, you know you're in Deneb. The springtime garden tells you Ganymede, and the New York subway takes you to Fomalhaut.

Some people even get to work in Heaven - the theme is High Tech Toys!

Artwork in all of our buildings is hand chosen by staff members during Madison's annual Art Fair on the Square, with some bonus finds from garden stores and flea markets. It's less expensive, more interesting, and a lot more fun than having professional designers choose for us.

Park here. Or, rather, under here. This is the top of our underground parking garage, covered with green trees, garden beds, and a meandering stream. The walking paths get us between buildings on nice days.

No car? No worries. You can take a Madison Metro Transit bus, which will drop you off at our front door. Or, hop on your bike and ride the Military Ridge Bike Trail directly to our campus. Even in winter, the trail is cleared by 4:30 am.

One of our many hangouts, The Black Dragon is a French café in summer and an English Tea room in winter. We offer locally roasted coffee, a variety of loose teas, and pastries from our own kitchen.

And it just gets more awesome....

If you need a place to escape or do some serious project planning, take the rope bridge over to our tree house. It's made of leftover construction material, and it looks like kids built it because, well, kids did. No pagers allowed.

A hub of activity, Grand Central Station is a place to post announcements and read about community events.

It's also home to Turner's General Store, the New York Sock Exchange, and Epic's Outpost. Grab some munchies, drop off your laundry, join a club, or book passage on an adventure trip.

Like I said, Sweet.  Or should I say Epic?